Environment Activities

Protecting the global environment is critical to our efforts to fulfill our social responsibility and is a top priority for our corporate management. In accordance with the JT Group Environmental Charter, the JT Group has acted as a responsible corporate citizen in all of the countries and regions in which it operates and promoted companywide initiatives to further reduce the environmental impact of its activities. Moreover, we established the JT Group Environmental Action Plan (2009?2012) as a medium-term plan for concrete environmental protection activities, with the aim of realizing the philosophy outlined in the JT Group Environmental Charter. The operational divisions of JT, as well as subsidiaries and affiliates, have been striving to achieve the targets set forth under this medium-term plan.

The JT Group recognizes that in order to deal with challenges with which the international community as a whole is confronted, such as the preservation of the environment and sustainable utilization of resources, we have to further enhance environmental management of the entire JT Group. Therefore, under the JT Group Environmental Action Plan (2009?2012), we have expanded the scope of environmental management to cover all consolidated subsidiaries, both in Japan and abroad, as we work together to build an environmental management system for the entire JT Group. In addition, we have made all consolidated subsidiaries subject to environmental management targets�reduction targets for the emission of greenhouse gases, the water usage and the generation of waste�and aim to steadily achieve them.

By setting the target of reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions by 10% in 2012 compared with 2007, we are making active reduction efforts. In 2010, facilities with less burden on the environment were introduced, energy savings made by improving the management of the energy usage and efficiency in transportation facilitated. As a result, in Japan, JT achieved a 49.5% reduction compared with 1995, and as JT Group, a 7.4% reduction compared with 2007.

In order to preserve the limited natural resources available, the JT Group is striving to reduce the water usage and the generation of waste and is promoting the reuse and recycling of used materials.

Since 2003, JTI has followed a plan to improve EHS performance — predominantly focused on our manufacturing operations and company sales fleet. JTI has implemented strong EHS management systems, set challenging EHS targets annually and executed programs that provide performance improvement year-on-year.

Using 2003 as a baseline year, JTI has made significant improvements in environmental performance. Between 2003 and 2010, the five environmental key performance indicators (energy, CO₂, waste and water intensity and recycling) improved. Energy by 29%, CO₂ by 28%, waste by 39%, water by 50% and recycling by 10%.